[OSGeo-Discuss] Changes (and proposed changes) regarding the Code of Conduct

Tue Dec 11 02:48:22 PST 2018

+1 for keeping the assumption of good faith !!
Maxi

Il giorno mar 11 dic 2018 alle ore 11:10 Arnulf Christl (aka Seven) <
seven at arnulf.us> ha scritto:

> Adding one more comment: Please, I implore you: Do not remove the
> assumption of good faith from OSGeo's principles!
>
> "Assumption of good faith" and "Quietening down somebody" are totally
> different things. In her blog on thebias.com Annalee somewhat hastily
> mixes the two up when she says:
>
> "The harm is that telling people to “assume good intent” is a sign that if
> they come to you with a concern, you will minimize their feelings, police
> their reactions, and question their perceptions."
>
> OSGeo and any open and welcoming community cannot exist without assumption
> of good faith. The opposite to assuming good faith is perfect paranoia
> which is only destructive. It is also quite impossible to set up rules to
> regulate everything without suffocating. So let us talk and interact as
> best we can from all our gender, cultural and individual background. If it
> starts to get out of hand - and this will happen again - look at it
> closely, have concerned people on a functioning CoC and repair the damage.
>
> Unfortunately I have not followed the issue which Sara Safawi indicated as
> her reason to want to leave OSGeo closely enough to be able to understand
> all the intricacies. But it actually did not feel good, even from a
> distance. Maybe a functioning CoC could have helped? People on a CoC have
> to take every complaint serious (reverse citing Annalee): Do not "minimize
> their feelings, police their reactions, and question their perceptions".
>
> And lastly, sometimes it is also time to let things go. If Sara has no
> intention of picking this up again we may want to let it rest.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Seven
>
>
> Am 11.12.18 um 02:09 schrieb Daniel Morissette:
>
> I agree with Jonathan here. I also have my own similar personal story from
> ~20 years ago where I used a French expression as the opening line in an
> email where all the rest was in English... and some of the recipients
> (co-workers) could very rightly have been offended. Actually some wondered
> if I might have been mad at them, but instead of jumping the gun, they
> asked me directly, I explained the meaning of the French expression and why
> I used it in this context, they explained that there was a corresponding
> slang word... that day they learned a new French expression and I learned a
> new word of English slang. I was not being careless, I simply had no way to
> know at the time that there was a corresponding English slang word that
> could have been offending, because I am not a native English speaker.
>
> We all had a good laugh in the end, but if it was not for their assumption
> of good faith this could have turned into a huge mess.
>
> I realize that not everybody will agree and I am not planning to enter
> this CoC debate... I just wanted to relay an experience.
>
> Stepping out of this thread now.
>
> Daniel
>
>
>
> On 2018-12-10 7:44 p.m., Jonathan Moules wrote:
>
> Hi Maria,
>
> Just a thought, but I'm not sure getting rid of the assumption of good
> faith is a good idea. To do so would be basically assuming people are
> guilty until proven innocent which runs counter to how these things should
> work.
>
> To use a personal anecdote, many years ago I had a black flatmate who I
> was joking around with and I made a comment that it turns out is a negative
> racial epithet. Being young and unworldly, I didn't know that at the time
> and certainly didn't mean it in that context, it also has a perfectly
> innocent context - the only one I'd ever been exposed to - which is how I
> was using it.
>
> Now, reading your thebias.com link, I can see that the author there would
> suggest I be pilloried for what was an honest mistake. They'd say I was
> being "careless" or "ignorant" and stepping on their toes. But I don't
> think either is fair because it's not reasonable to expect people to know
> everything that could offend everyone, especially somewhere as
> multicultural as the internet.
>
> For example, consider this symbol: 👍a simple thumbs-up emoticon that's
> commonly used to signify "it's all good" and "thanks". Well, it turns out
> that it's "an obscene insult" in some cultures! I didn't know that until a
> few seconds ago when I went searching for a simple example.
>
> I have learnt over the years from experiences in both directions that it's
> best to always assume good faith if possible. Humans may be the species
> with the most complex communication on the planet, but that doesn't mean we
> don't fail often.
>
> @Ben - Thanks for sharing World Human Rights day. I'm a long time fan of
> the UNDHR!
>
> Cheers,
> Jonathan
>
>
> On 2018-12-09 12:49, María Arias de Reyna wrote:
>
> Dear OSGeo community,
>
> As you may already know, I have been working for the last months in
> improving our community procedures[1] to make it a safer space. Recent
> events in the community have shown that we have a lot of work ahead.
>
> We all, as OSGeo, must remove the recent bullying and campaigning
> mentality that is unfortunately gradually become a part of our culture.
> Disclosing private data or hinting threats is not helpful and can only make
> our community less comfortable for everyone. We will work on improving
> actions on harmful behavior.
>
> This has been a slow task, but there are some actions taking place:
>
> CoC committee members have become inactive. I volunteered to pick up the
> task and lead a new CoC committee. Right now I am the only CoC member, but
> I am looking for more volunteers. If only, to make sure that if I am
> involved in any CoC incident, someone else can take care of it properly as
> mediator.
>
> I want to change also the way incidents and violations of the CoC are
> reported. I noticed there are reports being done on person and on private
> email, but never through the official channels (which right now is a
> mailing list).To improve this, I will ask the SAC to replace the mailing
> list with an alias and a form on the website. Also, there will be a public
> list of who receives those emails so people reporting incidents will have a
> clear understanding of who is receiving the information and decide to
> contact privately only a subset of the team. Replacing the mailing list by
> an alias that sends the data directly to the inbox of the CoC team is
> important, as sometimes incidents are not reported just because the person
> reporting is scared to leave a trace of the report or is not sure who will
> be reading the report.
>
> Another action I am going to propose is a change on the CoC itself. Our
> community has grown a lot both in diversity and in numbers, and we need a
> strict code of conduct that makes sure marginalized or harrased people is
> always covered by it. We can't rely anymore on just common sense and good
> faith.
>
> Once the new board is settled, I am going to propose to change the current
> CoC for another like the Contributor Covenant[2]. As it is a CoC shared by
> many communities, this has the advantage of receiving the upgrades and
> experience from other communities. As you can see, it fixes some of the
> bugs from our CoC, like the assuming good intent and good faith[3] part
> that made the current CoC useless on most cases. I will propose to add some
> foreword to adapt to specifities for our community, but in my opinion, the
> latest version of the Contributor Covenant is easy to read, simple, and
> cover most of what we need. My hope is that this new CoC can be adapted to
> all OSGeo Projects and Events that don't already have a CoC, so we have
> full OSGeo universe covered by default.
>
> I hope this actions will prove useful in the medium term and we don't have
> to see more members leaving the community. We should remember to be
> empathic and kind. We are all seeking the same goals and we should
> encourage cooperation, not hinder each other. I know that developer
> communities are very used to these bad behaviours, but I'm confident we can
> grow better.
>
> Have a nice day!
> María.
>
>
> [1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2018-August/011640.html
> [2] https://www.contributor-covenant.org/
> [3]
> https://thebias.com/2017/09/26/how-good-intent-undermines-diversity-and-inclusion/
>
>
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*Massimiliano Cannata*

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Responsabile settore Geomatica

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